Curfews are tricky things. They require balancing the desire for public safety with the freedom people ought to have to use their public places in an otherwise legal, peaceful way.

That balance, it seems, eludes Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings. Fortunately, Albany has a police chief and a district attorney who get it.

It's hard to imagine how a governor who has scored so many political victories this year could be so wrong on so straightforward an issue as the Occupy Albany protest, now entering its fifth day in Academy Park. Sure, Mr. Cuomo can send in the troopers to enforce a curfew. Just because he can doesn't mean he should.

It's disappointing, too, that Mr. Jennings, for all his one-time maverick ways and years in politics, would fail to respect the difference between the rowdy students he disciplined back in his vice principal days and adult citizens exercising their right to assemble and petition government for a redress of grievances.

And really, what better place to do that than a public park within view, even shouting distance, of the offices of both the mayor and the governor?

Apparently for Mr. Cuomo, it was too close for comfort. He ordered State Police to oust the protesters from the state-owned portion of the site, called Lafayette Park, the first chance they got, which came at 11 p.m. Friday when a park curfew went into effect. The protesters saved the troopers the trouble of making arrests, moving to the city's side of the park. The Cuomo administration was prepared for that contingency; the governor's secretary, Larry Schwartz, had pressed Mr. Jennings to use city police to enforce the curfew on their side, too.

Credit Albany Police Chief Steven Krokoff, perhaps emboldened by a hiring process that now allows Albany chiefs to be independent of the mayor, for not being so rash. Credit, too, Albany County District Attorney David Soares for refusing to prosecute peaceful protesters. Maybe they recall their oath of office better than the governor and the mayor do theirs. First and foremost, they swore to uphold the Constitution -- a reminder to not abuse their power.

Mr. Cuomo seemed all too ready to do so by using armed officers to silence people critical of, among other things, his own policies. Among the issues at the heart of the Occupy Wall Street protest and its offshoots around the country is higher taxation of the rich, a matter on which Mr. Cuomo may be rather sensitive. While most New Yorkers favor such taxes, Mr. Cuomo contends that continuing an income tax surcharge on millionaire earners would drive them out of New York. Critics chide the governor for cutting school aid to give the rich a tax break.

Perhaps having that criticism across from his office in the Capitol gets a little too easily under Mr. Cuomo's skin. As for Mr. Jennings, we're amazed at how a mayor can talk about supporting the First Amendment on his morning radio show but by evening feel compelled to toe the governor's line.

Leave the protesters alone, Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Jennings. Don't you two have more important things to do than arresting peaceful demonstrators?

THE ISSUE:

The governor and mayor try to use law enforcement to stifle peaceful protest.